By Brendan J. Lyons

Updated 8:02 am, Tuesday, June 11, 2013

A former Albany police officer with a history of off-duty problems, including multiple arrests, will begin serving a one-year sentence in the Saratoga County jail after losing an appeal of his criminal conviction.

A judge with the state's highest court on Monday declined to hear the appeal of Robert L. Schunk II, 41, who was convicted in Halfmoon last year on charges related to a violent argument with a former girlfriend. Schunk was arrested in 2010 and charged with roughing up his ex-girlfriend after kicking in the door of a bathroom where she was hiding. Schunk was convicted of misdemeanor criminal mischief for shattering the door and harassment, a violation, for terrorizing the woman.

Schunk was fired from the Albany force last year following a series of off-duty incidents and arrests, which included charges of driving while intoxicated and felony assault.

"I'm real disappointed for him," said Schunk's attorney, Cheryl Coleman. "He'll be okay, but we thought it was a very unfair trial and we still think so."

Last July, Schunk was released from jail on $20,000 bail three days after he was sentenced to a year in jail by Halfmoon town Justice Lester Wormuth. His appeal centered on a number of issues, including prosecutorial misconduct and an unfair sentence. Saratoga County acting Supreme Court Justice Jerry Scarano rejected the appeal and the Court of Appeals on Monday declined to unravel Scarano's decision.

Saratoga County assistant District Attorney Lyn Murphy prosecuted Schunk in Halfmoon and also in a related case in Albany in which Schunk was accused of roughing up his former girlfriend and putting a loaded gun to her head. He was acquitted by a jury in the Albany case.

"Regardless of people's profession or status, ultimately justice has prevailed here," said District Attorney James A. Murphy III. "Now he'll do his time as he should and be held responsible for his criminal conduct."

Coleman suggested Schunk received a maximum one-year sentence, in part, because the district attorney's office had failed to get a conviction in the earlier Albany trial, which included felony charges, and because Schunk took his Halfmoon case to trial. He rejected an offer from prosecutors to plead guilty to a misdemeanor and agree to an order of protection preventing him from having any contact with the victim.

Scarano ruled the sentence imposed in Halfmoon "was not a penalty for Schunk's exercise of his right to a trial, but a fair response to the nature of the crime and the totality of circumstances surrounding this entire matter."